Republican Attacks Goodwin Liu For Telling the Truth About Alito

18Apr

Goodwin Liu has been nominated by President Obama to the 9th Appeals Court, resulting in the typical Republican meltdown. He’s one of two Asian Americans nominated by Obama to the nation’s appeals courts, which now have no one of Asian descent among nearly 175 full-time judges. In 2005, Goodwin Liu testified against the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, concluding after a 19 page review of Alito’s decisions –

“Judge Alito’s record envisions an America where police may shoot and kill an unarmed boy to stop him from running away with a stolen purse … where a black man may be sentenced to death by an all-white jury for killing a white man,” Liu wrote. “I humbly submit that this is not the America we know. Nor is it the America we aspire to be.”

Liu supports charter schools and government-funded vouchers for private schools if they’re tailored to promote racial diversity, putting him at odds with teachers unions. He helped to start the California College Preparatory Academy, a West Oakland charter for mostly low-income minority students, in 2005, and volunteered at the school for two years.

However, most of his published work leans liberal. He has written articles or signed briefs favoring affirmative action, the right to same-sex marriage and consideration of students’ race in voluntary integration programs – which are the key positions giving conservatives, in their efforts to reestablish Jim Crow in America, heartburn.